Meet Me At The End Of The World

Chapter Six

I take the sticky bottle of liquid ioden from the science prep room and add it to the water to cleanse it as Honey filters the rainwater into multiple buckets. We mostly use the rainwater for drinking but sometimes we heat it and bath in it but only rarely. It's more important to drink than wash.

"Why isn't Simon helping?" I ask her not having seen the red haired boy all morning.

"He likes being alone." Honey states causally. "Loneliness scares him."

"What?"

"He likes to be alone yet know that he could join us at any time. Some times he just needs time to himself." She explains as she kicks the plastic gutter to knock the leaves out of place. "Just like you do."

"Don't you?" I question. Whenever I need to be alone, I think about everything I've lost. I replay the day my mum yelled at us to run. I replay the day Maggie was killed and then how Bethany and Elizabeth fell to an end. It hurts more then anything but I feel it important to level myself and honour their memories.

"I haven't lost anyone to the virus." Honey states calmly. The thought of someone being unaffected by the undead virus never occured to me.

"Really?"

"My ma's been dead for years while my pa is alive." She tells me sternly and suddenly I realise that Simon and her were talking about him a few days back.

"Where is he now?" I'm almost afraid to ask fearing that a tragic story will follow but Honey beams at me, proving the pride she feels for her father.

"When the world fell to shit, he gave me my gun and told me to protect Simon with it. He then headed out to locate any other humans but assured me that he'd be back. He's always had a soft spot for Simon after he murdered his dad so..."

"Your dad murdered Simons dad!" I exclaim in horror. I expected that something tragic had happened in both of their lifetimes but I never expected this.

"Yes, he did." She confirms.

"Does Simon know?" I ask and once again she nods. I can't understand how Simon and Honey are so close while he knows that her father was the one who took his father away. Surly he should resent her and her family.

"Now that I think about it, all of his family have been murdered by a member of mine. After all, I was the one who killed his ma after she was turned." She informs me her expression grim. I rest my hand on her shoulder in a reasuring way and flash her a comforting smile.

"It wasn't your fault. You just wanted to protect him from seeing her like that." I assure her but she only shrugs.

"You should go to him. You understand how he feels." Which I assume is code for her wanting to be left alone.

_________________________________________

I locate Simon in a maths classroom just staring blankly at the whiteboard from where he sits atop a table.

"How's your shoulder?" I decide to ask instead of asking him directly how he is. His attention snaps to me and he stares for a seconds before his expression clears to a more normal one.

"Alright."

"Can a take a look?"

"Be my guest."

I wander over and pull his sleeve away. I carefully unwrap the bloody bandage to find the gruesome wound still bloody beneath it.

"It's looking better. You also didn't get an infection which is lucky." I say as I dip a cloth in the water storage baskets we've placed in every classroom for emergencies and begin to reclean his wound.